Happy Valentine’s 2026!

And a Happy Valentine’s Day to all you love birds out there! Although we should be celebrating with romantic candlelight dinner and bouquet of flowers and chocolates, my partner and I just spend it like any other day. “Everyday is a Valentine’s Day for us,” my partner chimes in. Now how sweet is that! And he’s right. Why make the special effort to be nice to each other just on this particular day when you can make everyday you spend together special? We still surprise each other with gestures of love and cherish every moment we share. But still… I wanted to create something special for Valentine’s Day. Just to remind ourselves how much we mean to each other. And of course more the reason to bring about the kawaii elements of our strong relationship!

This year, I went for watercolor. I’m getting quite obsessed with the granulating type! And how is this different from normal watercolors? The pigment particles are larger and heavier as well as shaped unevenly so they don’t disperse smoothly on paper. As a result, they clump together and appear on the paper surface, creating a mottled effect with an interesting texture of light and dark areas. I chose the two sets of Kusakabe Harmonia Granulating Watercolors (blue box and orange box) which are described as “granulating two or more pigments in a single paint”, something I definitely notice in the red hearts. On the faces, though, I chose the Skin Tone set of Kremer Pigmente from Germany. Small details were then lined with Caran d”ache Prismalo aquarelle pencils with the white collars filled in with white Uni Posca Pen. For this piece, I chose A4-sized 300gsm Strathmore watercolor paper.

And look how cute we look! Due to health concerns, I decided to take it easy this time and keep it simple. Sweet and simple, that is! I am just happy that I have the energy and spare time set aside to get creative again. Slowly but surely working on it, and staying positive. Considering my condition, I am rather proud to have achieved this cute little watercolor painting especially on this special day!